Aussies upset at Adobe etc price gouging

Australians are starting to give a XXXX at the way that the big software companies are over charging them.

Apple and Microsoft have been summoned before a parliamentary committee to explain why Australians pay far more for music and game downloads than overseas customers.

According to the Age the Minister for Communications, Stephen Conroy, has ordered an inquiry into the pricing of software and other IT-related material.

Traditionally the software companies have claimed that the Australian market is too small and it is expensive to set IP support centres there. Then there are all those local taxes and duties.

Senator Conroy said that there is evidence to suggest that the innovative use of technology is not always matched with innovative new business models in the case of products and services distributed online.

While we would agree completely, this is a little odd coming from the defender of Big Content’s view on software piracy and censorship.

Still, a quote like: “the global digital economy is likely to make it increasingly difficult to sustain business models that are based on a geographic carve-up of markets,” which Conroy told the papers over the weekend, is probably worth cutting out and keeping.

What appears to have kicked this all off is the news that Adobe was planning to charge Australians $1400 more than US residents for the latest version of its Creative Suite software.

It is all pretty dumb because it is possible to buy the software in other parts of the world and install it.

Companies are getting adresses in the US just so they are able to download a piece of American software at American prices.